Friday, April 12, 2013

First Chapter Review: Pilgrimage of Promise by Cathy Bryant

I received the first chapter of Pilgrimage of Promisefor review. This is the fourth book in Cathy Bryant's Miller's Creek series. I have the first book--Texas Roads--in my TBR pile waiting to be read.

BLURB: Broken promises, enduring love... A dusty stack of unopened love letters forces Bo and Mona Beth Miller to revisit a part of their past they’d rather leave buried–especially in the face of death. Only as they retrace history will they learn the truth about the shattered promise that threatens to come between them. But can their relationship endure the deception and sabotage they unearth, or will the experience compel them to trust more fully in the promises that never fail?

COVER: I love everything about this cover: the subtle, warm colors, the woman walking through the field, the letters on the lower half that are in the foreground behind the title, and the font used for the title and author's name. Kudos to whoever designed this cover. It's stunning.

FIRST CHAPTER: Mona Beth and Bo receive disturbing news about Bo's condition. After the doctor leaves, they begin to talk and then reminisce about when they first met.

KEEP READING: It's rare a book can make me cry in the first chapter, but I came very close with this one. The seriousness of Bo's illness is revealed, and he and his wife are left alone to consider their next step. Talk eventually turns to the day they first met. The rest of the chapter reveals that story.

Based upon the synopsis and the style of the first chapter, it appears Pilgrimage of Promise will weave through past and present frequently. This is a style I love because I am fond of stories that display how the past impacts the future and ones that connect present day characters to family members or incidents in the past. Bryant's main characters appear to be mature Christians who know one another well and whose words and actions reveal a deep love for each other. This is definitely a story whose journey I want to follow.